Hearts of Glass:
by MewMidnight
Summary: 2 years after the final battle, a tragic accident involving Taruto reunites the group. A shocking new threat also emerges during his recovery- from a group of rebellion aliens looking for revenge on the girls. In the midst of the chaos, love triangles just make the battles that much harder. Alternate Pairings; in description. R and R Please!
1. An Accident

Description: Tart is injured in an accident on Earth, so Kish and Pai return to Earth to watch over him. While this is going on; a new threat appears and attacks an area in Tokyo, the footage is terrifying. The girls are completely unprepared to fight this new threat, and

Pairings:

-Pai x Ichigo x Kish (triangle)

-Mint x Zakuro x Keiichiro (triangle)

-Ryou x Lettuce

-Tart x Purin

Rating: T for now.. violence and angst.

…...

The sound of screeching tires on wet asphalt sent a shock through her body. She froze where she was on the sidewalk with a sharp chill running up her spine. The young blond whirled around with wide eyes to the direction of the sound behind her. What she saw before her felt like it was happening in slow motion. A brief yelp came from the alien behind her- Purin inhaled sharply as the sickening crash of a body against steel sent Tart through the air. She didn't even have time to scream.

His body rolled over the hood and onto the windshield, cracking it in a spiderweb pattern- he continued over the top of the car and crumpled to the unforgiving asphalt behind the car. The tires squealed and the car fish-tailed out of control up onto the opposite sidewalk as the driver attempted to stop after realizing he had hit someone. It had been lightly raining on and off all night- making the asphalt slick for drivers.

Purin couldn't form any cohesive words as she instinctively darted towards Tart's still body. He was on his side, and blood was pooling around him quickly. A quick heartbeat in her chest fueled her adrenaline as she dove to her knees beside him, gasping and yelling for help. The young alien's hood fell back, unveiling his long pointed ears.

"Oh God, nooooo!"

Her shrill scream pierced the air as the driver ran over to the young couple. The man fell to his knees a few feet away, shaking and breathing heavily. He immediately dialed 911 on his cell and began explaining the accident in fragments to the dispatcher. Purin could vaguely hear the man behind her, but she wasn't even focused on him. All that mattered, was her great love in her arms.

Purin grabbed Tart by the shoulders and held him in her lap as she began to sob loudly. Her hands trembled as she cradled him- he was unresponsive. Blood was dripping from the corner of his mouth and his whole body was limp. Ther was blood coming from injuries she couldn't see, and it was more than she had ever seen before. She screamed incomprehensibly about him, shaking her head and crying until her voice cracked. The young mew buried her face in his neck and yelled into his ears- attempting to wake him. She couldn't tell if his pulse was still there, she couldn't stop shaking long enough to tell. Her heart felt like someone had a vice grip on it; all her muscles were tight and quivering as she clung to him.

Blaring sirens sounded like angels in the distance- the ambulance.

4 hours later…

Two familiar faces entered Tart's quiet hospital room- the young girl numbly looked up at them. Purin was seated in a chair pulled up beside the hospital bed. Her cheeks were stung red and her eyes had dark rings of exhaustion and anguish under them. The alien duo that entered the room were wearing human clothes, with dark hoodies to hide their pointed ears. The yellow eyed alien dove over to Tart's side,

"How could you do this to us?! You have to be careful Tart!"

It was an angry whisper, but the mew knew that Kish was just worried about his younger cousin. A taller, darker, alien stood at the foot of the bed, a slight look of concern playing his hard features. Those grey eyes glanced down at the sobbing monkey girl, she whimpered and bit her quivering lip. Pai pressed his lips hard together as if he were apologizing for the pain she was in. The girl noticed the minuscule change in his features and she briskly stood up and threw her arms around him. The tall alien was rigid for a moment, unfamiliar with such contact from someone else.

Kish was hunched over the bedside of the smaller alien, his eyes were locked on the young ones closed eyes. A stern hand rubbed through messy sienna colored hair as the older alien shook his head and mumbled to himself about how they should have been there. Tart's head was bandaged up, he had a brace on his right forearm, and a tight bandaging around his abdominal area. His breathing was slow and paced along with the beeping heart rate monitor in the room.

6 Hours later…

It was around 7am when Ichigo, Lettuce, and Ryou arrived at the Hospital. Ichigo had hopped on the first flight back from England, while Lettuce and Ryou immediately drove back from the coast once they caught wind of the accident. When the lead mew burst into the room, Purin was laying across a few chairs and her head was on Pai's lap, his head was leaned back and the two of them were dead asleep. Kish was sitting on the floor beside Pai's chair, asleep with his head on his knees.

Ichigo barging into the room woke everyone but Purin up. Ryou remained by the door as Lettuce and Ichigo ran to Tart's bedside. Ryou glanced over at the sleepy purple haired alien, the two locked eyes just for a moment.

"He gonna be okay?"

Ryou mouthed, trying not to start a fuss with the girls. The alien nodded slowly as Kish stood up, brushing himself off to look somewhat presentable for Ichigo. Pai cleared his throat and gave a strange look to the sleeping girl on his leg before explaining to the others,

"He broke his right wrist, punctured a lung, broke three ribs, dislocated his shoulder, and sustained some minor internal injuries on top of a concussion. That being said- he will recover."

Lettuce cooed in a concerned manner and the redhead beside her turned back towards Pai,

"Has we been awake once since the doctor let him sleep?"

"No, but he is at least stable."

The girl forced a sigh and shook her head, "How awful… he didn't deserve this."

Lettuce reached out and gently stroked Tart's hair as she blinked back tears- it always broke her heart to see her friends in pain. Beside her; Ichigo spoke again to the tall alien, softer this time:

"How is she?"

With a motion of her hand, Pai knew she was referring to the monkey girl using his thigh as a pillow. He responded without even glancing down,

"She is better now that she slept. She was rather…hysterical when we first arrived. The man responsible is being held at the police station for suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol."

Ichigo visibly clenched her jaw and fists, "I can't believe someone could be so irresponsible."

…

The entire group remained at the Hospital, along with the new company of Keiichiro. The brunette man had been so kind as to bring food for the group, and they were moved into a private conference/waiting room to wait for Tart to wake up. One TV occupied the few of them that could stay awake. The stress made a few of the girls doze off. Ichigo was awake, she still couldn't believe that a drunk had hit Tart.

The conversation was sparse, it was hard to discuss day to day things while one of the group was so critically injured. Although no one out-right said it, it was odd to have the entire group back together. It had been about two years since the final battle with Deep Blue, and everyone sort of…drifted apart and moved on with their lives. Lettuce and Ryou had become an item and moved to the east coast together, she was in school while Ryou began managing a private security business. Ichigo had gone to England to be with Masaya, but things between the two of them were rocky and it wasn't easy for her to be so far from her family. Zakuro and Mint had gone to America together, the wolf girl was helping Mint get a jump start on her professional ballet career. Tart had decided to stay on Earth with Purin and help her take care of her siblings while she went through High School. Pai and Kish had left Earth, and only dropped by on occasion to see Tart. The only one left 'behind' was Keiichiro. The kind man still managed the Cafe and had hired some new girls to work there since Purin was the only one left; Tart reluctantly came around to help as well.

Despite the accident, it was good getting to see everyone again.

The room was still and cold, it was unwelcoming- just a small room for families to wait for their loved ones to regain consciousness. Keiichiro was sipping from a foam cup of coffee and engaging Ryou in petty conversation. The chef was trying hard to make the best of a bad situation. Purin was awake and twiddling her thumbs beside him, she strangely hadn't said a word.

A sudden news broadcast from the only TV in the room caused those that were awake to perk up. An attack on Tokyo.

The footage the news channel was playing was truly terrifying. Those awake and watching the broadcast fell silent and held their breath, Keiichiro wrung his hands together anxiously as the story unfolded. Around 8:30am a 'being' of some sort went on a rampage through a busy intersection in the city. The being looked as though it had somewhat of a human build, a long whip like tail, grey skin, and a decent length of deep red violet hair. The creature tossed cars aside easily and grabbed and threw businessmen aside into buildings and onto sidewalks. It was unimaginable, no one believed what they were seeing.

Ryou shook his head with is mouth hung open as they watched the graphic footage,

"What… What is that?"

Pai was dead silent, a plethora of thoughts rushed through his mind. The brunette man beside Pai chimed in,

"Do you know what that thing is?"

The violet haired alien was silent for a few tense moments, his eyes locked on the blurry images in front of him. A quick beating in his chest made the alien feel a twinge of fear, he did in fact know what this was.

"It-"

Before Pai could speak, the door to the conference room squeaked open and a nurse popped his head in and spoke with a phony cheer in his voice,

"Uhm… Hey guys! Just wanted to let you know your little cousin is awake and talking, he can have visitors now."

The interruption put the conversation on hold as the group woke up and made their way to Tart's hospital room. It was rushed, and everyone had something to say to the weak alien. Purin was immediately crying tears of joy as she grabbed his hand and put it on her cheek. Keiichiro kept asking about how he was feeling and if he had any pain- he was trying to bed down the horrible footage that was in the front of his mind from the news broadcast.

Although the lean blond man was glad to see Tart up, he yanked Pai aside and immediately brought up what they had just seen.

"What was that thing? It killed _four_ people, and injured _three_ more; I need to know what the hell it is and if _we_ are going to have to take care of it."

A sigh escaped the stoic alien's chest as he glanced quickly to the side at the group distracted with Tart. He seemed very perturbed about the subject,

"The simple version? That looks like an old creation by our people… it was a new species. It's faster, stronger, and more equipped for fighting. Our geneticists created it many decades ago as a blueprint for a 'super soldier', and the experiments were frozen and put into our labs for storage until we found a stable planet to live on to finish the research. None of them were ready for combat because no testing was done…it seems someone got into the lab-"

"And let that thing out on Earth?! Why would they do that?"

It was obvious that Ryou was feeling the pressure now, that horrible thing was loose and needed to be dealt with. The alien narrowed his eyes slightly at the interruption, he continued with his explanation;

"There is a small rebellion, a group that wants to take over in the name of our fallen leader, Deep Blue. They are small, and our authorities have been pursuing them with no avail. They believe that Earth should have been ours as well, and that Master Deep Blue should not have been killed. They must have found a way into the lab… they're the only ones who I could imagine would do a thing like this. They want revenge on us…and on you as well."

The red haired mew turned back towards Pai and Ryou, she could tell by their expressions that something was very wrong. The two of them were not overly emotional, and they both seemed intense. The girl hadn't heard all of their conversation, but had heard the last sentence of what Pai had just said. She had been asleep in the other room and hadn't seen the broadcast yet. Since Tart was awake and Purin was distracted by him; Ichigo decided to join in on the conversation between the two guys.

"You guys look tense... What are you two talking about?"

Ryou cranked his head right at her, a frighteningly serious look played his face,

"Did you girls bring your pendants?"

…

MewMid: It's been SO freaking long since I wrote for TMM… I've been an author for TMM for almost 8 years and just fell off the writing bandwagon for a while. Good to be back though! I know the pairings may be odd to some, but I'm so tired of doing the same old couples, I want to go out of the box a little.

Let me know how I'm doing so far, thanks! R and R!


	2. Regrouping

Description: The group has to figure out their living arrangements and Tart wakes up. However, the biggest challenge will be getting the girls back to speed on their fighting abilities. They are highly unprepared to battle this new threat, and a frightening confrontation proves it.

Rating: T…language/violence.

MewMid: I just wanted to point out, I'm making the three aliens cousins in this story… I know many people make them brothers, but I want them to be cousins…because I already established it. Haha! Enjoy!

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"Of course we have them, why?"

A hint of fright crept up into Ichigo's tone as she locked eyes with her former manager. His jaw was tense as he stared her down, he twisted his lips and breathed heavily through his nose,

"We need to have a meeting, but I don't want to do it here."

Pai cut into the conversation, leaning down a bit to keep the conversation private from the others,

"We cannot leave Tart here, I'm going to move him to my ship's medical bay."

"Well we can't _all_ just leave Earth."

Ryou snapped back, the two of men looked very tense. Ichigo huffed and leaned up close to their faces and whispered,

"What the hell is going on?"

…

The cafe was cold and still, it felt alien to the group as they entered the building. Keiichiro strolled through quickly ahead of the group and switched on some lights. He mumbled under his breath about the extra blankets and sleeping bags he kept in the storage closet down stairs.

Kish had stayed behind at the hospital with Purin and Tart, since the young mew refused to leave Tart's side- Kish wanted to be there to protect them.

Lettuce yawned as Ryou took her rain coat,

"Oh goodness, it's been quite a day."

Ryou hung her jacket over his arm and stood in front of Pai and Ichigo,

"We all need to get some rest. First thing in the morning, we will try to get in touch with Mint and Zakuro and then figure out how to track that monster."

"Why not do it now? That thing could be out there on a rampage right now!"

The quick interruption from the red head got everyone's attention. The blond man in front of her slid his free hand into his pocket and tilted his head back, looking down at her somewhat.

"Ichigo, just by your face I can tell you're exhausted, you're not ready to fight without at least some rest. Transforming after all this time will not be easy on your body. In the morning, you guys will be better prepared to find this monstrosity. I will find a way to track it, so we will at least have some idea of where it would be hiding."

The girl grudgingly nodded her head after letting the information sink in, he had a point.

A call from Keiichiro let them know that their makeshift beds were ready. The small group went off to get settled in their rooms. Lettuce was to sleep in Ryou's room, Keiichiro was in his own room, and Ichigo was stuck sharing the one spare room with Pai. When everyone went to their respective rooms, Pai did not.

Ichigo ignored the fact he was missing and laid down anyway, but her thoughts wouldn't let her rest. Sleep wouldn't come with the horrible images of that monster tearing that city intersection apart; and the poor citizens who lost their lives. It felt like hours were going by as she laid there restlessly. The cat girl groaned and wrapped the sheets around her tightly as she rolled over to the edge of the bed.

When her eyes fell to the sleeping bag, she realized that Pai hadn't come back. She furrowed her eyebrows together and stared hard at the empty bedding on the floor. What could he be doing? Why wasn't he sleeping?

The cool air made her shiver again and she sat up in a fuss. Her curiosity would always get the better of her. She jumped out of bed and scampered across the room and peered out the door into the hallway. The only sound was the air conditioner in the back ground; her dainty steps led her down the hall and to the basement stairs. There were only bedrooms upstairs, so Pai had to be down in Ryou's computer room. The hall was dim as she traced her fingers along the right wall, immediately locking onto the open door at the base of the stairs.

Sure enough, a pale glow from a large computer monitor illuminated a large figure with pointed ears. Pai's back was to her as she tip toed into the room,

"Why are you not sleeping?"

His steely voice made her flinch and stop right where she was, like a child getting caught out of bed by a parent.

"I uh… I noticed you weren't asleep either so I came down to see what was going on."

The alien didn't even look back, his hearing was truly incredible. Ichigo regained composure and made her way to his side, looking up at the strange program on the monitor. It was obvious he was tracking something, but it looked like a map of stars, not of Earth.

"What are you doing?"

Pai ran a lazy hand through his hair and explained,

"I'm simply seeing if there are any ships like mine anywhere near Earth, and as I expected, there are two."

"Thats not good…"

The alien looked over at her, her large eyes were locked right on his as he continued.

"Correction. It _is_ good. One ship is using the orbit of your moon to remain within teleporting distance from earth, and the other is here already."

The girl's eyes grew wide and her mouth dropped open slightly, her expression was of pure confusion and worry.

"You mean one ship of rebels is already here?"

A silent nod made her exhale forcefully and shake her head. The girl put her own arms around herself and rubbed her cold arms, her white tank top and little blue sleeping shorts were not keeping her warm.

"What are we gonna do? We have to find that ship and get them, I bet they have that _thing_ there with them."

"We will need all of us together to fight it, that creature will be difficult to kill without everyone here. It will wait until morning."

Ichigo shook her head once again, even though he was right. She then shifted her gaze down to meet Pai's stoic face. It hadn't occurred to her to even question about how he was holding up, Tart was his relative after all. The mew shifted her weight uncomfortably under his stare,

"Are you doing all right?"

With a blink, he turned his head back to the computer and began typing as he responded to her question.

"I imagine you mean coping with Taruto's accident? Yes. I would rather have taken him back to my ship to treat him, but he isn't healthy enough to teleport yet."

A slight smile crept up on her face at how thoughtful Pai actually was to his younger cousin. She had only seen the kind side of him once; when Deep Blue's ship exploded and he sacrificed himself to save the girls. And here he was again; here to help them fend off another threat when he and Kish could have just picked up Tart and left the girls to fight on their own. He secretly had a good heart, but it was buried deep beneath a blanket of snow and ice. A small hand brushed her bangs out of her face and she took a deep breath to relax a bit, no reason to be stressing until the fight tomorrow.

Pai shifted and looked back at her, the girl had gotten lost in thought; her silence got his attention. The mew realized he was now staring at her with a slight look of amusement on his features.

"Oh- Sorry! I got lost in thought. You're really good to Tart, and…you're good to us too."

Her comment seemed to throw him off, his eyebrows slowly furrowed together in contemplation. Ichigo knew he didn't know what she had been thinking about,

"I meant during the final battle. I was just remembering it- I know it was you who protected us from the blast from Deep Blue's ship… I never got to tell you how grateful I was. You didn't have to do that, but you saved us…"

"You did not deserve to die… It was up to you to defeat Deep Blue. It was the right thing to do on my part."

A small chuckle from her made him turn towards her in the computer chair; one of his hands moved to support his jawline as he stared at her. Her smile was cheery, she was always able to smile no matter how bad the situation was. Although he hated to admit it, this girl was so lively, she really lit up a room when she entered it. He wouldn't want anyone to know of the fleeting thoughts he had of the girls and how he did care about them somewhat; and that it was flattering for him to be appreciated for once. He never felt truly appreciated for all the work he did on the ship and for Kish and Tart. Being a rock for others and being the oldest was very difficult at times.

"You are welcome."

"You know, this is the most you and I have ever spoken."

"I realize that."

Ichigo took another deep breath and glanced toward the door,

"It's kind of nice, you alien guys aren't so bad- and you are secretly a big softie huh?"

He picked up on her sarcasm and nodded with a 'hmm' sound from his throat, he then turned back towards the computer and spoke quietly,

"You should rest, you look exhausted. You will not function properly in battle without sleep, I will rest shortly as well."

...

The quiet in the hospital was disturbed by a crash of glass and a shriek. A sleepy monkey girl perked up immediately and briskly walked to the door, peering out through the glass. She could hear struggling down the hall and the sound of some things falling. A rush went through her body and her heart jumped into her throat. She put her ear to the glass and listened, another scream from down the hall made her yank her head back and take a few steps away from the glass.

She glanced at her boyfriend, he was still dead asleep with his mouth hung open.

The girl whipped around when another distant crash echoed down the long hall; a small hand smacked onto Kish's chest. He jerked awake and looked up at her with those lazy gold eyes,

"What the hell?"

Purin shook her head and put a finger over her mouth to tell him to hush,

"There is something in the hallway na no da!"

The alien stretched and yawned, clambering his way to his feet and blinking a few times. Kish wasn't fully functioning when he first woke up, he grabbed the door handle and cracked the door open. It was quiet now…

Purin nudged his shoulder as if to urge him forward. The two of them pulled the door open enough to peek their heads out into the hall, some rustling behind the desk of the nurse made them both tense up. Kish reached back and put a hand on her shoulder to push her back into the room.

"Get back inside, I'll go."

The girl reluctantly fell back into the room behind Kish, the alien slid quietly out into the hallway and clicked the door shut behind him. Purin hesitantly walked over and put her nose on the glass to try to see down the hall to her right where the noise was coming from.

The alien quietly made his way down the hall, and practically jumped out of his skin when a familiar beast crawled over the huge half oval desk. Kish was frozen just for a moment when he saw it.

The being arched it's back and stood up tall in the center of the hall when it saw him. A heavy exhale from between it's teeth gave off a threatening aura. A shock ran up Kish's spine and he immediately summoned his twin swords and bent to a fighting position. The strange new alien was about seven feet tall, a medium shade of grey skin and long pointed ears. It also had two small holes on either side of it's neck, and looked like those were his airways for breathing since he had a nasal bone, but no nostrils to breathe out of. His scarlet hair was all straight back behind him, and he had a tail at least the length of his body twitching wildly behind him. It looked strong.

"shit…."

The sword wielding alien grumbled under his breath. The larger alien rushed towards him with a snarl and the two began to fight. Kish slashed horizontally at him back and forth, but it had long arms to keep Kish at a distance where he couldn't slash his abdomen. It reached over his arms and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, and yanked him down to the right, slamming him into the wall. Kish yelped when his head collided into the wall, he wheezed and deflated on the ground as the beast stepped over him.

While attempting to sit up, the whip like tail of the monstrous alien seized Kish's neck before he could even react. Frantic hands dropped one sword and swung wildly at him with the other. One slice to the tail caused enough slack in the tail for Kish to drop out of his grip. He surged forward and tackled the larger alien to the ground. The two began punching and slashing at one another, but Kish couldn't keep him down for long. The green haired alien was easily tossed aside like a rag doll.

Another body jumped in on the fray, interrupting the large being from grabbing Kish again. A small flurry of punches and kicks came from the monkey mew, only thing was- she hadn't transformed.

Kish scrambled to get back in on the fight with an attempted stab to the aliens abdomen, but that long tail got a hold of his arm and began constricting it like a python. The smaller alien began screaming and flailing as the tail wrenched his arm in it's powerful grip. Purin let out a faint scream as a huge hand crushed down on her thin neck, the scream was silenced quickly by the enormous pressure of him squeezing her neck.

A few nurses peeked their heads around the corners of the hallways, but they didn't dare get involved. Many of the hospital staff that remained ran screaming in terror- they had no idea what was happening.

Purin flailed in his grasp as the grey alien pushed her weight up off him, and with a swift jerk- threw her down the hall and into the bottom of the desk. A furious yell came from Kish as he tried to pull his arm back, kicking and biting the tail of the monster holding him. He was left here to protect Purin and Tart, and so far; he was failing. With all the commotion, no one noticed the frail bystander leaning against the wall.

A weary young alien with messy brown hair used the wall to support his weight. An arm with a cast held the door knob as his free, uninjured hand summoned a red yoyo.

Purin picked her head up from the cold linoleum floor, she shook her head and screamed out to her young love,

"No, Taru-Taru, don't!"

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	3. Rescue

Description: After the ordeal in the hospital, the girls regroup and determine their next plan of attack on the aliens ship. The rebels pay them a visit before they can set their plan in motion, and things get ugly.

Rating: T

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Apprehension and fear were painted on Purin's features as she looked up to her love. He stood weakly against the wall by his room doorway, he wore a weary expression through his bandages as he raised his weapon.

The small yoyo began to spin wildly, and sparks began to fly off. Tart then used all his energy to swing the weapon and sent it hurtling towards the grey skinned beast clambering to it's feet in front of him. The monstrosity looked back just as the yoyo spun around it's legs and knocked it to the ground. The throw made Tart wheeze and slowly slide to the floor with his back against the wall. Purin watched in horror as the attacker turned back to the smallest alien. Tart winced because of his injuries as the behemoth lurched over him.

Kish realized that the grey alien was going to attack his cousin and he moved to launch his own attack. As the alien reared back a clawed hand to strike Tart down, a bright purple flash blew passed and ripped a gash into the monsters arm. The green haired alien fell back onto his rear as the beast fell beside him, clenching its arm wildly and roaring in pain. Blood splattered all over the floor of the hospital corridor, and Kish scrambled back away a few feet. His bright yellow eyes shot up the hall towards the source of the flash- Zakuro and Mint.

The wolf mew darted over to Tart and scooped him up into her arms with ease, while Mint flew over to Purin and helped her up. The grey skinned alien then teleported out of sight, and Tart's weapon dropped to the floor. After a few moments, Kish weakly got to his feet, meeting the eyes of the violet haired mew holding his young cousin.

A whole hearted smile appeared on his face at the sight of the rescuers, he breathed a sigh of relief as he spoke to the girls;

"I can honestly say I'm happy to see you guys."

Tart took a few more tense breaths from the sudden stress, and then relaxed in the model's arms and jokingly snapped at his older cousin,

"Lot of help you were, I had to save your ass."

Kish scoffed and grinned at the snarky comment,

"I'm glad your punk ass could get out of bed to do so."

Mint and Purin walked over to join the trio, and the monkey girl ran up to her young love and petted his hair and gave him a sweet kiss on the cheek. She was concerned about him more than anything. Zakuro shifted as she held the little alien in her arms, her eyes went from Tart to Kish's bright amber ones. Her tone was a bit ambiguous, somewhat warm, but still retained it's chill as she spoke.

"We need to get him to the cafe, it's not right putting all these hospital staff in danger needlessly. He will be safer at the cafe anyway because we will all be together. Divided we will fall."

…

Once Tart had been settled in his room, Purin was immediately beside him. The blond mew hadn't left his side, she laid in bed next to him and gently curled up to him and dozed off. Tart had been resting a lot now that he was settled in a soft bed, especially after the energy exertion he went through.

Curious gold eyes peered into the room, glad to see the two of them so content despite the oncoming storm. Kish moved to close the door, but a sudden body muscled it's way in front of him and made him flinch. A head of wild red hair moved it's way between his body and the door to peek in as well. The alien fumbled to find words, but the lead mew seemed to find words quicker-

"They're too cute!"

Kish took half a step back from her to create a little distance. He was not even focused on the young couple now, just on this sweet smelling girl that invaded his personal space. With a slow turn of her head those big brown eyes looked up at him in an amused light. He now wore a cheesy grin, feeling a little warmth heat up his heart for an instant. She spoke again,

"I haven't got to catch up with you yet, how have you been?"

"Keeping Pai in line, you know."

A sarcastic expression suddenly lit up her face,

"Somehow I doubt that."

The alien rocked back on his heels and looked to the side briefly, this girl made his stomach flutter whenever she looked at him with those doe eyes. It was nice having her act friendly towards him rather than be fighting and attacking him, being allies really was better. He struggled again to find words, but gathered his thoughts after a few moments;

"What about you Kitty-Cat? Stirring up trouble like usual?"

A slight sneer and lift of his head made her notice he was kidding, she huffed and gave him a playful push.

"Me?! I don't stir up anything!"

"Hey love birds!"

The sudden interruption made them both whip their heads in the direction of the voice; of course it's Ryou. The blond man rolled his eyes at the dumbfounded looks on their faces and continued,

"When you two get done, gather your thoughts, things, whatever- and meet us in my computer room in ten. We got a location."

The red head felt slightly embarrassed that Ryou was calling them love birds, but brushed it off as he strolled off. She sighed in a huff and looked back to the alien, feeling a slight heat in her cheeks because he was looking directly at her. Those bright eyes made her swallow and back up a step,

"We will have to catch up later then I guess."

Kish seemed slightly downhearted at her putting the slight distance between the two of them. She motioned with her head and smiled haphazardly,

"We should go."

The alien shrugged and told her he would get Purin to leave Tart for a moment to come downstairs and hear the plan. Ichigo simply nodded in response and awkwardly made her way down the stairs even though she knew no one was down there yet. Kish was 'moving in' on her once again it seemed and she wasn't sure how to feel about it. The alien was a good person at heart, but after all they had gone through; she wasn't sure what she wanted. She and Masaya had been broken up for more than six months now, but it still felt strange to think about other guys.

The mew rounded the corner into the dark computer room and right into the body of a tall muscular figure. The abrupt bump into the other person made her gasp and stagger backwards, her face lit up in a blush as she blinked a few times and looked up at the person.

"I'm so sorry, that was my fault!"

Her worried eyes met the narrow cold ones of Pai. The oldest alien looked down at her with furrowed eyebrows, it made a chill run up her spine. She felt like she was in trouble and apologized again,

"S-Sorry about that!"

Pai's expression softened and he shook his head, stepping aside to let her in the room.

"Not a problem."

The mew smiled sheepishly and looked up at him,

"I didn't know you were down here, you found the location?"

The alien shifted slightly under her glassy eyed gaze, he seemed to hesitate for just a moment.

"Yes. I have pin-pointed the ship that is on Earth. It landed in the forest in one of the national parks just outside the city. I'll share our attack plan when the rest of the group decide to come down."

Ichigo observed as he turned and walked across the room, making her shuffle to walk with him. She liked being able to get him to open up, it seemed like he needed it.

"If you don't mind my asking, what made you want to stick around and help us?"

When he turned to look at her with that usual emotionless face, she felt a twinge of nervousness- maybe it offended him? She breathed with a cheap grin on her face and put her hand on the back of her head to flatten her hair,

"I don't mean to sound ungrateful, I was just curious!"

The corners of his mouth lifted ever so slightly, making her focus on his thin lips. Pai looked down at her for just a moment as he formulated an appropriate response,

"Many factors went into my decision to stay and assist you all. Purin is important to Taruto, and he would die to protect her. That kind of blind dedication earns my respect. And these rebels are from _our_ planet, we may be the only ones who can track them. We have a common enemy, and It'll take all of us to defeat them. "

"Are you this serious all the time? Because it looked like you almost cracked a smile there for a second."

Her sudden off-topic question made him crack a look of confusion. A plethora of thoughts ran through his head as the nosy cat girl gawked up at him. She wasn't really interested in his reasons for why he stayed, she clearly had ulterior motives in her question. The alien searched her face for answers, but all he got was a candy sweet smile from her. It was unclear as to why she cared about his personal reasons for anything, he wasn't used to having someone pry into his business like this. It wasn't offending like he thought it would be, it was, intriguing to say the least.

"I am as serious as need be. It's not my job to be emotional, it's-"

The door swung open so hard it hit the wall and a girl interrupted their conversation by tripping into the room. She barely caught herself before falling on her face, she clambered back up to a standing position and fixed her glasses. A bright red flush lit up her cheeks as she smiled at Pai and Ichigo. A blond man rushed around the corner and grabbed her arm, looking her over to make sure she was intact. Lettuce nodded and flattened the crinkles in her dress and regained her composure.

The group convened in the computer room and Ryou and Pai gave the lay out of the plan. The girls all listened intently, with the exception of Purin, she was far too worried about her boy upstairs. His bones needed time to heal, and he wouldn't be able to fight in this skirmish. The thought of that monster hurting Tart further made the youngest mew bitter and made her want to fight that much harder.

As they got towards the end of the set up plan; a sudden explosion and rumbling of the building made them all cower. It was deafening, the sound of crumbling walls and the roar of heavy winds made a few of them drop to their knees. The whole building shook around them like an earthquake.

Keiichiro grabbed the wolf girl before she toppled over, he turned and sheltered her against the wall with his own body. Purin was knocked onto her rear, but quickly jumped to her feet and sprinted out the door and up the stairs. Ryou yelled after her- but was too late.

Ichigo then charged out after her, the entire group followed suit.

As they ran out into the main floor, there were two aliens standing in the remnants of the main dining room of the cafe. One was wiry and had cream colored hair, his expression was one of cockiness and arrogance. The other alien was incredibly tall, at least seven feet, and had black hair. The taller one had intense burn marks that made the right side of his face look as though it was blown off, and he had a steel looking eye. The scars were scattered about the right side of his body, and his most unsettling feature was his forearms- they were mechanical. They were made of steel and looked animatronic.

Kish whirled passed everyone after the youngest mew and was trying to get to Tart as well. He froze when another alien held the two youngest by their hair at the top of the staircase. Tart was limp and looked unconscious, and Purin was flailing around in his arms and was yelling and writhing to get free.

Ichigo began frantically searching in her pockets for a pendant, but the cream haired alien shouted at her.

"Stop right there! Better wait just a damn minute-"

The group was unsure of who should have their attention. Keiichiro took a brave step forward and put his hands up to show he was not armed,

"If you are the leader of the rebels- Please hear me out. Those two are very young and do not deserve to be thrown into this, please don't hurt them."

The lead alien scoffed and took a step towards him, but Pai brushed passed him and made the alien recoil in fear. It was truly startling to see the alien back away from Pai, Keiichiro stared in disbelief. The gigantic scarred alien stepped in between them, and made Pai look short in comparison. This alien was almost a foot taller than him, and he did not make any threatening gestures; he simply blocked the way to the pale haired alien behind him. Pai seethed and summoned his fan, causing the girls behind him to dig through their pockets and purses for their pendants in case of an attack.

The black haired giant slowly shook his head and seemed to have a somewhat sorrowful expression on his face. Pai glared up at him and spoke bitterly,

"Get out of my way Binx."

The giant seemed to press his lips together for a moment in what looked like hurt, and plead with his eyes at the purple haired alien,

"I have to."

Ryou looked back at the blue haired alien holding the two youngest members of their group hostage. He shook his head- this wasn't good. He spoke up sternly, and got everyone's attention,

"What exactly do you want from us?"

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MewMid: Sorry for any grammar errors!

Wanna see pictures my aliens? I have almost all of them drawn on my deviantart account. I am BladeKat on dA and you can just search "tokyo mew mew cray", or whatever names you wanna see and you'll find my gallery. I have lots of TMM art on there.

R and R!


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